Saudi Arabia’s largest lender, National Commercial Bank (NCB) has attracted 215.8 billion riyals (US$58 billion) of bids from about 1.2m investors following its initial public offering. Despite attracting religious controversy for being un-Islamic, the retail portion of the US$6 billion sale was oversubscribed by almost 16 times.
A prominent Saudi businessman is reportedly seeking $10 billion in damages from U.K. financial group Barclays after he claimed that the bank had conducted “corrupt activities” in Saudi Arabia, which ultimately cost his companies billions in lost revenue over the past decade.
The Saudi Arabian government may cut its fuel and electricity subsidies for consumers as a measure to ease the burden on the economy, hinted a top finance official on Tuesday, after the cost of energy subsidies rose to about one-fifth of Saudi Arabia’s GDP in 2011.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude oil exporter, will begin exploratory drilling for shale gas sometime this year, said Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi on Monday, with some estimates placing the kingdom’s shale gas reserves at more than double its conventional gas reserves.
Saudi Arabia’s Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal has threatened legal action against Forbes Magazine for its annual rich list, reported The Telegraph, following insinuations that the Prince’s true wealth was $9.6 billion less than his own estimates, on account of alleged “market manipulation” in the Kingdom’s stock exchange.
Saudi Arabia “needs” to invest over 500 billion riyals ($133 billion) into new energy projects over the next ten years if the nation is to meet its growing power demand, said a government official on Sunday, after intermittent power cuts had occurred in the summer on the back of increased air-conditioning usage.
The kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest exporter of crude oil, is at risk of becoming a net importer of oil within the next 20 years, said a study by Citigroup analysts on Tuesday, with the nation’s consumption rate growing much faster than what the nation can produce each year.
Saudi Arabia’s oil minister Ali al-Naimi has promised that his country would boost its oil output by as much as 25 percent this year in order to calm fears about rising oil prices worldwide.
Speaking to reporters in the Qatari capital of Doha on Tuesday, al-Naimi described recent high oil prices as “unjustified” and said that the Saudi kingdom was more than ready to intervene in the market in order to lower the price of oil.
Hundreds of Saudi Shi’ites staged a protest in the kingdom’s oil-producing Eastern Province Friday
calling for prisoner releases and a withdrawal of Saudi forces from Bahrain, activists said.
The world’s No. 1 oil producer and a vital ally for the U.S.,
Saudi Arabia has not seen the kind of mass uprisings that have rocked the Arab world this year.
But dissent is simmering in the kingdom as unrest takes root in neighboring Yemen, Bahrain and Oman.
Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah handed out $37 billion to appease Saudis of modest means and
cushion the world’s biggest oil exporter from the wave of protest sweeping the Arab world.
However the biggest handouts over the past two decades have gone to his extended family,
according to unpublished American diplomatic cables dating back to 1996 according to cables obtained by WikiLeaks.
In addition to the huge monthly stipends that every Saudi royal receives,
